Savages: A poly love story

Twitter has been abuzz about Savages, and about polyamory as a result. Last night I went out to see it for myself. I really enjoyed the movie and would have even if it wasn't a mushy poly love story (with guns, sex, and violence).

So go see it if you like action movies, especially drug war action movies with kidnapping. (Skip it if that's not your thing, though.)

Not giving anything away, the movie is centered on a polyamorous vee (with two men and one woman, presumably the men were not romantically involved with each other).

What they got right:

  • How weird a poly relationship can feel when you are new. There were a few instances when the narrator, O, talked about how strange and "wrong" it is.
  • How strong the bond between metamours can be.
  • The ways metamours accommodate each other (within the first few minutes, Chon "goes on a swim" to give Ben and O alone time together).
  • The amount of love that poly relationships can have.

I had some problems with the characters, but I think overall the polyamory elements were handled honestly, truthfully, and tenderly.

There are so many things that aren't shown, but that's the nature of movies. It isn't visually appealing to get into time management or communicating about jealousy (with an aim to get rid of the jealousy rather than start a fight that ends one or more relationships).

The movie left me feeling all sorts of warm and fuzzy about their relationship, though, and that's pretty awesome and rare in an action flick.